Fifth Avenue Right Up Bowden`s Alley

See him run in the masters` division of the Mercedes Mile of Fifth Avenue Sept. 13 in New York City. Catch a glimpse of Bowden live on CBS television.

Watch David Bowden run like the wind, pushing and pressing from 82nd Street to 62nd, 20 city blocks to this mile.

Watch him run alongside Mary Decker Slaney. Watch him run by the Metropolitan Museum of Art at 81st Street and Fifth Avenue.

See David run.

Right along Central Park. Past William Paley`s residence at 75th Street, past Jackie Onassis` residence at 69th, past Claus Von Bulow`s at 67th. What a nice neighborhood. See David run.

``It`s going to be so quick,`` Bowden said. ``I don`t know what to expect, but I think I`ll do extremely well.``

Bowden, 41, is all but guaranteeing a personal record in New York and a near- the-top finish in his age group. Especially if he gets one of those cool, wind-swept autumn afternoons, when even Central Park seems inviting.

Game plan? Bowden, the former president of the Fort Lauderdale Road Runners Club and the cross country and track coach at Boyd Anderson High School, will try to run the first half mile in 2:10. ``I don`t know the course,`` he said. ``But they tell me at the halfway point there`s a little hill.``

At that point, if conditioning doesn`t propel him, adrenaline will.

``You know how it is,`` Bowden said. ``People yelling. And being in New York.``

So Bowden will be cruising. But at race`s end, the television cameras likely will be focused on the leaders: women like Slaney, men like Eamonn Coughlan, who holds the world indoor record in the mile, American Sydney Maree, Frank O`Mara, the defending champion who ran Fifth Avenue in 3:52.28 last year, and Rod Dixon of New Zealand, who won the New York City Marathon in 1983. If the cameras remain focused on the line for 30 seconds, look for the man in the running shirt with Florida written across the front. See David finish.

Bowden, like Dixon, has run his share of marathons: Boston, New York and Montreal three times apiece.

As a marathoner in recent years Bowden is highly accomplished, but he is no late arrival to the short-distance scene, either. He set two age-group records at the Sunshine State Games, running the 1,500 in 4:29 and the 880 in 2:16.

He qualified for one of 15 spots in the Mercedes masters` division by running the mile in a personal best of 4:41 and 4:45 and the 1,500 in 4:27.

He`s a two-time past president of the Fort Lauderdale Road Runners Club. The newspapers have named Bowden high school coach of the year two years in a row. At Boyd Anderson, he teaches health and physical education.

And he is no late arrival to big-time sports in the Big Apple.

After graduating from Fort Valley State College in Georgia, where he played football and baseball, he was drafted as a defensive back by the Washington Redskins in 1966. That didn`t last long. ``They knocked on my door and told me to bring my playbook,`` Bowden said.

He then went to New York. He played football for Andy Robustelliand the Brooklyn Dodgers in the Continental Football League. The team played its games on Randall`s Island. The footballs were flat, the checks bounced.

He moved to Chicago to give football one more shot, playing for the Chicago Owls. Then he moved to St. Louis.

David Bowden on the run.

Nine years ago, he returned to Florida, his home and the place he first started running when he attended high school in Tampa.

Back at Middleton High School, Bowden was a four-sport man -- playing basketball and football, splitting time between baseball and track. His baseball coach was Billy Reed, who later coached Dwight Gooden and Floyd Youmans at Hillsborough High.

But Bowden laughs at all those past encounters with greatness. His smile is broad, like his square chin. He is stern and handsome, meticulous in work clothes or running shorts.

When the cross country runners roll into his portable classroom after a preliminary run, Bowden recommends a cooldown. ``A walk,`` one athlete suggests. ``Walk?`` Bowden says quietly, choking on the word. ``A jog and then some chin-ups,`` is his recommendation.

Soon Bowden will join them on the track. He still runs about 55 miles a week, down from 100 when he was training for marathons. In preparation for the mile, he sprints 660 yards, then recovers for 330. He concentrates on lengthening his stride, getting the most out of each step. ``I`m just trying to get a little more of a stretch with each stride,`` he said before taking off like a fleet messenger through the night.